The hunger for collecting information into what is commonly called Big Data has become a goal in itself, far removed from the original reasons for retaining transaction data from a variety of business processes. Enterprises have worked hard to collect, organize, and secure the growing volumes of data over the last few years, and most now have stable but growing datastores.

Now that all that data is safely contained in your data center, it’s time to make use of the information to increase profits and generate additional revenue. Start with these four initiatives to get a return on your data investments.

Personalize the user experience

Neil Capel, CEO of Sailthru.com, said he concentrates on customer experience when analyzing data. He recommends creating unique user profiles using the broad set of information contained in the datastore, so each email, in-app, or on-site communication can be personalized to the customer’s tastes and preferences.

With help of the profiles, the company can then build intelligent agents into its ecommerce systems to make personalized recommendations that are more likely to appeal to customers than more generic ad-targeting technologies.

Retain customers

Customer churn is a significant issue in determining a company’s value. According to Gainsight.com, VCs are paying attention, saying that every 2% gain in retention equals a 20% bump in valuation.

Analytics applied properly can take diverse siloed data and virtually merge it into accessible information. Gainsight’s CEO Nick Mehta explains, “In one platform, Gainsight provides a real-time, 360-degree view of customers, helping clients to reduce churn, increase upsell and drive customer success across the entire organization, from sales to support to C-level execs.”

Compare broadly

Performance in a vacuum can lead to false assumptions about overall success. Comparing products or processes within an enterprise can provide useful insights.

Pete Koliopoulos, a director for the enterprise computing solutions segment of Arrow Electronics, believes that viewing customer trends can point out ways to leverage those comparisons.

“Comparisons between growth rates to other like customers or market growth rate is another leverage point from the data store," he said. "This allows the audience to know more precisely where they are in relation to peers or the market. That drives actions to improve and gain advantage.”

Ignore big data

Enterprises that have become enamored with big data can sometimes lose track of other aspects of their operations.

Werner Hopf, CEO of Dolphin, said concentrating on basic issues like procure-to-pay and order-to-cash can produce savings by taking advantage of early pay discounts and avoiding late charges.

Hopf says, “Many enterprises struggle with P2P and O2C functions because they are overwhelmed with Big Data, especially the many various forms in which it flows into the enterprise.”

Refocusing on basic business practices can lead to higher profitability.